Instagram announced Monday that it has added an often-requested feature to its app: “Live Rooms,” which will allow up to four people to live stream in real-time. In the past, users could only live stream with one other person, similar to Facebook Live. The company says it hopes Live Rooms will open up more creative opportunities in live broadcast formats to allow for live talk shows, host more engaging Q&As, and Interviews. This is a great feature to add to your content strategy.
What are Instagram Live Rooms
A few months ago, Instagram started testing the Live Rooms feature in India and Indonesia, two huge markets that were extremely active on Instagram Live throughout 2020. Beauty influencers participated in makeup tutorials and others had interactive talk show host streams.
On Monday, Instagram rolled out its new feature to the international market for the first time and has organized a week of events that aim to demonstrate what it can do. Several panels will feature a number of content creators, including two sessions regarding the #BuyBlack movement, a move to support Black-owned businesses that gained more attention last summer. Among the influencers participating in the event are Alok Vaid-Menon, Basit, Travis Alabanza, and Pidgeon. The money will be donated to the Transgender Law Center.
Instagram Live rooms are a way to broadcast live with up to 4 other people. Some say this new addition is their way of competing with the ever-popular new app Clubhouse. Clubhouse allows for multiple people to host a “room” while many others listen. This gives us the opportunity to do it on Instagram. In my opinion, it’s much better than clubhouse as it is recorded, and you have the ability to save the video for later. This video can then be broken up into several pieces of content, posted on youtube, turned into a podcast, and much more.
Why are Instagram Live Rooms Important?
Instagram Live has supported two-person streaming for years, but the platform has never seen it become trendy. When the pandemic arrived, everything changed. A recent survey indicates that 70 percent of Instagram users watched Instagram Live during February and March last year. It was quite challenging, however, to manage multiple guests.
Now with Instagram doubling up on live, the feature has already had a significant impact on social media, even as it’s still rolling out to more users. Instagram Live Rooms are expected to have an enormous effect on the way creators communicate with their audiences and make connections with other creators from around the world. As we saw with the #BuyBlack movement, Instagram Live Rooms are already being used to increase awareness and facilitate change.
Marketers are excited about Instagram’s newest feature and have begun using it as a powerful marketing tool for their brands. “I see Live Rooms becoming a powerful marketing tool in that we can promote our client’s products and services directly through an influencer’s channel,” says Shelby Brown of Muse Marketing Group. “I really believe collab culture is the future,” says George. “People want to create together even when they’re apart, or maybe especially when they’re apart. What’s been really interesting about what’s happening in the market right now on social media is that everyone’s leaning into that trend in a different way.”
Hosts can invite up to four friends or followers to join them for live sessions. The group can see comments in real-time as they broadcast. The new video feature has had a significant impact on social media and broadcasting. More people are getting involved with live streaming events, providing a unique platform for online streaming that’s already popular among celebrities like Demi Lovato and Michelle Obama using it exclusively for philanthropic causes.
Who can use Instagram Live Rooms?
Instagram is saying they should have this rolled out to all users by the end of the week. Instagram Live Rooms offer a new alternative for interactive classes. This is an excellent way for coaches, therapists, teachers, and others to reach out to their clients in ways they previously could not. Instagram Live Rooms enables a host to facilitate a part of a class consisting of up to four different hosts, all of which specialize in various fields.
A broadcast host can also invite others to join rap battles or host a jam session. This gives artists more opportunities to co-create together during isolation. The new feature should also help business accounts. Those can now live stream in an Instagram Story format on top of their posts, as they can with Facebook and Twitter pages.
Live Rooms is a way for those who want to broadcast to more than one person at the same time, which previously wasn’t possible without using external apps or third-party sites like Periscope or Facebook Live.
This means that up to four people can broadcast together from their smartphone or tablet simultaneously
How to Use Instagram Live Rooms
First, make sure you update your app to the latest version (check your app store to make sure).
There are a few ways to start a live room:
- open the option to “go live” by swiping to the right from the home screen
- Hit the + icon at the top of the screen which you typically press to post something, scroll right to locate the ‘Live’ option, click it and live with open.
- Open the Instagram Stories camera and swipe over to the “Live” mode icon.
Next, tap on “Live” and hit that record button.
Your Instagram Live Room should ideally have a title. To add one just click on the “Left Aligned” icon on the left-hand side of the screen. When you title your Live Room, you are letting viewers know about the topic and what they can expect.
To add others, you will see a video camera icon on the bottom right with + sign inside of it. Tap on it. It will show you a window reading “Go Live in a Room”
From here, you can search for your co-hosts and invite them to join the live video.
Add all your guests at once or one at a time.
When your friend “accepts” the request, they’ll appear in the live video.
Conclusion
The world as we know it is becoming more collaborative and I’m here for it. The ability to have live stream conversations, live viewers, group streaming, and interactive features in one app gives every user an opportunity to connect with people all over the globe in real-time. It also makes for some extremely valuable evergreen content to pop onto your content calendar.
